


Illis quos amo deserviam

by Its_Raineing_Words



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Orphanage, BAMF Nyota Uhura, BAMF Spock (Star Trek), Bullying, F/M, First Meetings, Full Vulcan Spock, Getting to Know Each Other, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Kid Fic, One Shot, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond, Psychic!Nyota, Science Fiction, Vulcan Kisses, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, at the beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 22:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17734133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Its_Raineing_Words/pseuds/Its_Raineing_Words
Summary: Nyota had grown up alone and hated by everyone because of her psychic abilities until she wasn't alone anymore.





	Illis quos amo deserviam

**Author's Note:**

> The title is Latin for 'For those I love, I will sacrifice'.

It is a rumour that spans the entire discovered universe that lay dormant under every Vulcan’s ice-cold emotional barriers runs a river of lava that is just waiting to free itself from its icy constraints and that they have to expend inordinate energy just to keep that lava contained.  
Nyota can't believe that when she’d first heard it from one of the older girls in the orphanage on Asari Ceta II because she had seen Vulcans before and there was nothing there, just a blank slate. She had tried to probe their minds with her ‘gift’ like she usually did but found nothing, though she was punished for her invasion of privacy by the matron. Clearly, the Vulcan was able to sense her, that must be what the articles meant when they talked about Vulcan’s psychic abilities if so, they didn’t hold much resemblance to her own.

But then a boy arrived and it changed her life forever though she wouldn’t know that for a long while. A boy with dark hair and darker eyes and pale skin with the slightest green tint that marked him as non-human even if his ears and eyebrows hadn’t already done so. Nyota almost passed him over, she’d already tried with one Vulcan and found nothing after all but something about him called to her. What was he doing here? Who’d ever heard of a Vulcan orphan, anyway? And if there were such things, surely they’d be on Vulcan and not in the backwater of Federation territory, so close to neutral space it may as well not be Federation at all for how little their laws were actually abided by or enforced. When she reached out to him she met with resistance and he stopped staring blankly out of the window and turned to her, dark eyes flashing dangerously.  
She almost backed down but no one had ever resisted her before except for the other Vulcan and she hadn’t been able to match their abilities but he seemed to be more evenly matched to her.  
Their minds battled for a tiny infinity before Nyota was pulled out of her focus by sudden sharp pain, her eyes snapped open as she found herself pinned to the wall by her neck with her feet dangling off of the floor. Sensations that weren’t hers washed over her, a wave of powerful and alien anger, fear and...curiosity.  
“Cease this. Humans are known to be psi-null so I do not know how you are doing this but you will cease right now or I will hurt you,” his voice was deeper than the other boys her age, perhaps he was older than her own twelve years or perhaps it was merely a quirk of Vulcan physiology. His grip on her neck tightened as if to remind her of his demand and at that moment she knew he could read her thoughts as she could his-the emotional feedback loop was amazing. This exchange of emotion had been far more than she’d hoped for, though her curiosity had not been sated, quite the opposite.  
Self-preservation won out however and she was about to nod her agreement when he let her down, “Do not approach me again.”  
Nyota slipped down to the floor, ignoring the stares of everyone else in the canteen as she gasped for air. No one came to help her which wasn’t exactly surprising and once she’d caught her breath she slunk away to her room, she felt his eyes on her the whole time and it made her want to turn to look at him but she resisted. 

Most people who knew what was good for them left Nyota well alone, even if she wasn’t the most physically strong her ‘gift’ meant that she could hold her own and then some. That didn’t really help when she was caught by surprise, however. Kamrehs was Tellerite with a bone to pick with everyone he ever met, especially her, he got into constant fights and his crew of assorted bullies were equally as evil, if not as...linguistically talented.  
“Hey, you daughter of a whore! I saw what happened between you and that newbie, the pointy one, yesterday. It was interesting but it made me think…” her blood started to run cold as Kamrehs stepped closer towards her and his cronies moved behind her, stopping any escape, “he managed to choke you, so why not give it a go myself? You managed to scare the others but I don’t give a fuck if you have a little poke around in my head, Tellarites don’t have such ridiculous notions of modesty or secrets. I have nothing to fear from you, wretch.”  
Nyota had no idea how to feel about the situation, she knew that given her unpopularity that no one would come to her aid and it wasn’t like she could really fight him-the matrons would make her life not worth living if they found out. It wasn’t the first time she’d been hit but that didn’t mean she relished the thought, and just because she could use all her strength didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try and fight. She wasn’t about to let Kamrehs get a head start and kicked him hard in the shin; Nyota had forgotten about his ‘friends’ and that was a big mistake because no sooner had he let out a groan of pain they’d grabbed her by the arms, twisting her limbs painfully.  
“Get off me!” Nyota screamed, trying to kick the boys holding her with little success.  
“Why would we do that?” One of them said though she didn’t care which.  
Nyota didn’t bother replying, she just carried on flailing about and kicking in a desperate attempt to free herself before Kamrehs got to her. If she managed to get free she was fairly confident she could outrun them, she knew the orphanage like the back of her hand and she knew that there was a small copse of purple trees at the edge of the playground that she could easily get lost in. But those thoughts were doomed from the beginning…  
“You little fuck! I’ll choke you out even harder for trying to hit my boys,” She only had time to think ‘it’s kick, not hit, you idiot’ before his chubby hand was wrapped around her neck. Before he’d touched her she felt capable of dealing with the situation if not exactly calm but as soon as he started to choke her she panicked and started to scream. Arguably not the best thing to do when air was in short supply, but she couldn’t think rationally at a time like this. 

Nyota’s vision was just starting to go spotty when she heard a calm voice to her left, “Release her. Now.”  
“Oh, the Vulcan...Spock, wasn’t it?” Kamrehs replied, not moving his hand, “I thought you’d be happy, I’m only finishing what you started after all.”  
“And what is that?” Spock asked, ‘oh that’s a nice name’ Nyota thought dreamily, clearly the lack of oxygen was starting to get to her.  
She could sense the Tellerite’s mental state which was surprisingly more distressing than being choked; he was taking a sick enjoyment out of hurting her and of knowing that everyone was watching. Sick bastard.  
“Well we all know what you’re psychic like her, you must’ve wanted to get rid of her, you didn’t want any competition.”  
“Well…” Spock began leisurely and through her spotted vision Nyota could see him ambling towards them, “it seems that a lot of gossip has been manufactured about me. All of it false, I assure you.”  
Nyota could read the Tellerite’s mind and she could see that he was beginning to smell a rat, she looked through Kamrehs’ eyes and saw that Spock was moving oddly. While Kamrehs couldn’t tell what Spock was planning it was clear to Nyota.  
“What are you-“ But he didn’t even have time to finish his question before Spock ripped him backwards and away from Nyota with one hand. Kamrehs’ cronies clearly knew a stronger opponent when they saw one and quickly backed off, leaving her to pant and cough, limp like a rag doll that had been thrown to the floor. 

There was a sickening crunch as Spock slammed his fist into the Tellerite’s face mercilessly and he seemed to crumple in on himself in pain. The world stopped as everyone just stared at the scene evolving in front of them. Nyota barely even had time to feel a sick pleasure at his pain before Spock had punched him again and yet again. Blood was just beginning to stain the concrete below them when four caretakers rushed out and prized Spock off of Kamrehs. 

Spock was the only one to be punished which was completely normal as well as terrible and while Spock was stood on the plinth, absolutely still and stone-faced Nyota snuck him some food and as their fingers brushed as she passed it to him she could feel his gratitude. Their animosity from before had seemingly vanished. She thought about that night as she curled up into a ball in her bed, hiding under the thin blankets as she watched the ships fly across the sky outside of her window. She always wanted to go there, go to space, to Earth where her race was from but where she had never been herself and now she felt like she had someone she could take with her. The odd connection between them was both rapid and total like she could still feel his presence in her head even though he was nowhere near her.

After that, they became mostly inseparable, mostly due to the fact that it turned out that they had a lot in common but also partially because they were ostracised by everyone else at the orphanage. They were the two ‘freaks’ and they were happy that way. The two of them would hide in the forest as often as they could and soon everyone learnt that it was better to just avoid them or risk retribution, it was a toss-up as to which one of them was scarier. Though Spock tended to win out just through his brute strength most people had learnt that Nyota wasn’t to be trifled with either, she could ruin someone’s reputation forever just by looking at them, she could know your most inner secrets and thoughts.

Years passed and they were never even considered for adoption but they wouldn’t have wanted to be anyway, they had all the family they needed in each other. Eventually, they were too old be even have a token consideration for adoption and it was soon made clear to them that they had no place in the orphanage anymore. Now that they were alone in the slums of New Beijing, the capital of Asari Ceta II, it was a mixed blessing for them. They were free to do what they wanted but they were still essentially children, adolescents really, and that made it difficult to make enough money to survive. Finding legal employment was impossible and while the fact that Spock was Vulcan and thus strong meant he got some illegal manual labour work it wasn’t frequent enough. After a while, desperation drove them underground and hunger robbed them of their morals. Nyota would manipulate anyone she could into giving her money or she would just steal it outright. Spock would take any work that was offered to him which eventually earned him connections with various gangs, he was often underestimated because of his age but that was their mistake. 

“Spock!” Nyota screamed though it was more out of reflex than anything else as their link meant that she had warned him mentally before she’d even opened her mouth.  
Spock ducked as the plasma from the phaser eroded a hole into the wall behind him. He’d known that they’d catch up with them eventually but hadn’t calculated for it being this soon. He grimaced as he looked over to Nyota was on the adjacent building setting up the last of the antennas, they couldn’t afford for this to fail-not with all the money they were looking to get paid from it and the mortal consequences should they not complete their task even if thugs employed by Afranjax, the mob boss they’d been paid to sabotage didn’t kill them first. 

Spock sent her the image of the hoverbike that he’d parked at the back of the building and then a quick run through of how he was going to get there. She nodded to herself, preparing to follow him. As he made his way down to the bottom of the building, avoiding Afranjax’s thugs, Nyota just leapt off of the side of the building. Some of Afranjax’s men gasped as they watched her fall. Nyota concentrated as her fall began to slow, she focused on gathering energy beneath her to slow her fall. She had done this many times before and the familiar sensation of floating took over her. She was snapped out of it by the sound of phaser fire and she grimaced. That had barely missed her and while she could erect a shield to block it, there was no way she could do that and slow her fall at the same time. She looked down and judged if she could survive the fall. The decision was made for her when the phaser fire started in earnest.  
“Fuck it!”  
With that, she dropped to the ground like a stone. Pain shot through her whole body and the sound of plasma hitting her shield sounded far away.  
‘Spock!’ She shouted mentally, sending him a picture him an image of where she was. The pain grew too much for her and she knew she’d pass out soon, as a last-ditch effort she rolled under a dumpster and hoped that Spock would find her. That money had better be worth it, was the last thing she thought before the darkness took her. 

Nyota woke up feeling groggy and slightly sick, like she had drunk far too much the night before. Flicking open her eyes and scanning her surroundings she breathed a sigh of relief to know that she was back at their makeshift apartment in an abandoned shipment crate, shabby though it might be, at least that meant Spock had found her. But of course, he had found her, he always did and always would.  
‘Spock?’ she called out to him mentally, knowing he would hear her.  
Suddenly Spock strode into the room holding a glass of water.  
“Drink, you’re dehydrated.”  
He handed the glass to her as she sat up in the bed labouriously. Before Spock had time to move his hand away Nyota pressed her fingers to his in quick a kiss and the familiar spark shot up her arm.  
“You found me, Spock. I knew you would.”  
“You were hurt when I found you, two broken ankles and severe bruising. I used the dermal regenerator on the bruising but I can’t do anything for your ankles,” he explained clinically and her ankles throbbed with pain as if the demonstrate the validity of his claims. Not that she wouldn’t have believed him anyway, that had been a hell of a fall. In fact, she felt lucky that it hadn’t been even worse.  
She sighed, “Shit, we can’t go to the hospital. What’s the plan? I’m sure you’ve come up with one while I was asleep.”  
“I set your ankles so they will heal well enough but you won’t be able to walk which does us no good as it limits our capacity to earn money. For humans, a broken ankle takes at least six weeks to heal, if not more.”  
“Fuck, this is doing us no good. Surely there’s another option.”  
He shook his head, “None that are viable.”  
“What do you mean?” She pressed, “Tell me.”  
“New Eden has the equipment to fix broken bones, they need it for their employees after their customers are...finished with them. But we’d owe them a favour and that is a dangerous position to be in. I would do it but I know that if they decided to call that favour in and we weren’t willing to obey that they would kill you which would make the whole endeavour obsolete.”  
She sighed, “You’re right. Of course, a brothel like that would have the equipment but I don’t want you going there and getting into trouble again. I remember the last time and it wasn’t pretty. Still, two months of me essentially out of commission is dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous.”  
“We would be fine, I am perfectly capable of earning enough money for the both of us,” he argued.  
“But at what cost? If I’m there I can protect you. And yes, before you say anything, I know you can protect yourself but we work better together. Our abilities fit together, even. I just don’t feel comfortable with you out there alone any more than you would if the roles were reversed,” Nyota explained and she saw Spock’s chest deflate a little, his version of a sigh.  
“You decide, then, Nyota.”  
She debated what for say for a short while. Going to New Eden was never a pleasant experience but if it was what it took to get her able to work again then surely it was worth it? Then again, Spock would have to go alone which didn’t sit well with her. The people at New Eden weren’t above trafficking people into the business and she couldn’t help but worry, there was a market out there for Vulcans as the both of them only knew too well, second only to Orions-though they were in demand for the exact opposite reasons, the Prude and the Slut. Typical.  
None of it sat right with her but what choice did they have? Either way, Spock would be in danger as she couldn’t help him if she couldn’t walk.  
“We go together like we always have.”

**Author's Note:**

> Took me ages to write so hope you enjoyed, the ending is a bit shit but I've always been bad at those. I might continue it if I can think of anywhere else to take the story. Any feedback is always amazingly appreciated.


End file.
